TODAY’S RECIPE: Chicken & leek filo pie

USE leftover Sunday roast chicken. SERVES 4.

Ingredients

75g butter 2 leeks, halved lengthways and sliced 300g chestnut mushrooms, sliced 25g flour 300ml chicken stock 300g cooked chicken, shredded 75ml double cream 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard Small handful parsley 6 sheets filo pastry 60ml olive oil 1 tsp thyme leaves 1 tsp nigella seeds Cabbage and mash to serve (optional)

Method

1 Heat a third of the butter in a large saucepan, cook leeks for 10 mins or until softened, then tip onto a plate and repeat with another third of the butter and the mushrooms. Heat the remaining butter in the same saucepan and, once melted, stir in the flour and cook the paste for 1 min, then stir in the chicken stock, a ladleful at a time.

2 Leave on a low heat to simmer for 5 mins, then stir in the chicken, leek, mushrooms, cream, mustard and parsley, and season. Spoon into a 20cm pie dish and leave to cool.

3 Heat oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5. Lay a sheet of filo on a chopping board and brush with olive oil, then place on top of the pie with the corners resting on the sides of the dish, then repeat the process, placing the next sheet slightly off-centre — the idea is to fan the sheets of filo.

4 Brush each layer with oil, and on the last layer sprinkle over salt, thyme leaves and nigella seeds. Press the pastry gently into the edge of the dish. Bake for about 1 hour until the pastry is deep golden, then remove from the oven and serve with buttered cabbage and mashed potato, if you like.